thinking bible.

You asked

what specific 'ordinances' or customs created this 'dividing wall' between jews and gentiles?

The passage, plainly, with room to sit with it.

Ephesians 2:14-15

For he is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in his flesh the hostility, the law of commandments contained in ordinances; that he might create in himself one new man of the two, making peace,

Paul is writing to believers in Ephesus, a diverse city in the Roman Empire. He's explaining how Jesus's death has brought together people from different backgrounds, specifically Jewish and Gentile followers, who were previously separated by deep-seated religious and social divisions.

What old divisions in our world might Jesus's life and teaching call us to reconsider and dismantle?

Keep thinking

Read alongside it

  • Acts 15:19-20

    Describes the Jerusalem Council's decision on which customs Gentile converts must follow.

  • Galatians 3:28

    States that in Christ, traditional distinctions like Jew/Gentile, slave/free, male/female are overcome.

  • Isaiah 56:7

    An Old Testament prophecy envisioning God's house as 'a house of prayer for all peoples'.

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